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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Dancing with the Stars? Carrie Ann Inaba Votes to Host The Humane Society of the United States? Genesis Awards!
Dancing with the Stars? Carrie Ann Inaba will take time out from prepping for the 14th?season of the hit ABC show to host The Humane Society of the United States? 26th?Genesis Awards on Saturday, March 24, 2012, at The Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills.? The only major awards show of its kind, the annual Genesis Awards [...]
2 convicted in al-Qaida terror plot in Norway
Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak appears in the Oslo courthouse, Oslo, Norway Monday Jan. 30, 2012. Two men accused of plotting to attack a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad were found guilty Monday of terror charges in Norway, the first convictions under the country's anti-terror laws. The Oslo district court sentenced alleged ringleader Mikael Davud to seven years in prison and co-defendant Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak to three and a half years. (AP Photo/Scanpix/Berit Roald) NORWAY OUT
Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak appears in the Oslo courthouse, Oslo, Norway Monday Jan. 30, 2012. Two men accused of plotting to attack a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad were found guilty Monday of terror charges in Norway, the first convictions under the country's anti-terror laws. The Oslo district court sentenced alleged ringleader Mikael Davud to seven years in prison and co-defendant Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak to three and a half years. (AP Photo/Scanpix/Berit Roald) NORWAY OUT
Judge Oddmund Svarteberg prepares to read the sentences of two men accused of planning an attack in the Oslo courthouse, Oslo, Norway Monday Jan. 30, 2012. Two men accused of plotting to attack a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad were found guilty Monday of terror charges in Norway, the first convictions under the country's anti-terror laws. The Oslo district court sentenced alleged ringleader Mikael Davud to seven years in prison and co-defendant Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak to three and a half years. (AP Photo/Scanpix/Berit Roald) NORWAY OUT
Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak appears in the Oslo courthouse, Oslo, Norway Monday Jan. 30, 2012. Two men accused of plotting to attack a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad were found guilty Monday of terror charges in Norway, the first convictions under the country's anti-terror laws. The Oslo district court sentenced alleged ringleader Mikael Davud to seven years in prison and co-defendant Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak to three and a half years. (AP Photo/Scanpix/Berit Roald) NORWAY OUT
OSLO, Norway (AP) ? Two men were found guilty Monday of involvement in an al-Qaida plot to attack a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, the first convictions under Norway's anti-terror laws.
A third defendant was acquitted of terror charges but convicted of helping the others acquire explosives.
Investigators say the plot was linked to the same al-Qaida planners behind thwarted attacks against the New York subway system and a shopping mall in Manchester, England, in 2009.
The Oslo district court sentenced alleged ringleader Mikael Davud, to seven years in prison and co-defendant Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak to three and a half years.
Judge Oddmund Svarteberg said the court found that Davud, a Chinese Muslim, "planned the attack together with al-Qaida." Bujak was deeply involved in the preparations, but it couldn't be proved that he was aware of Davud's contacts with al-Qaida, the judge said.
The third defendant, David Jakobsen, who assisted police in the investigation, was convicted on an explosives charge and sentenced to four months in prison ? time he's already served in pretrial detention.
Defense lawyers for the three told the court they would study the verdict before deciding whether to appeal.
Davud smiled and waved to photographers as he left the court. His defense lawyer, Carl Konow Rieber-Mohn, told The Associated Press later Monday that he would advise his client to appeal.
The case was Norway's most high-profile terror investigation until last July, when a right-wing extremist killed 77 people in a bomb and shooting massacre.
The three men, who were arrested in July 2010, made some admissions but pleaded innocent to terror conspiracy charges and rejected any links to al-Qaida.
During the trial Davud denied he was taking orders from al-Qaida, saying he was planning a solo raid against the Chinese Embassy in Oslo. He said he wanted revenge for Beijing's oppression of Uighurs, a Muslim minority in western China.
Davud, who moved to Norway in 1999 and later became a Norwegian citizen, also said his co-defendants helped him acquire bomb-making ingredients but didn't know he was planning an attack.
Prosecutors said the Norwegian cell first wanted to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, whose 12 cartoons of Muhammad sparked furious protests in Muslim countries in 2006, and then changed plans to seek to murder one of the cartoonists instead.
Bujak, an Iraqi Kurd, said the paper and the cartoonist were indeed the targets, but described the plans as "just talk."
Prosecutors had to prove the defendants worked together in a conspiracy, because a single individual plotting an attack is not covered under Norway's anti-terror laws.
"There is no doubt that Davud took the initiative to prepare the terror act and that he was the ring leader," the judge said as he delivered the verdict.
He said Davud planned to carry out the attack himself by placing a bomb outside Jyllands-Posten's offices in Aarhus, in western Denmark.
The men had been under surveillance for more than a year when authorities moved to arrest them. Norwegian investigators, who worked with their U.S. counterparts, said the defendants were building a bomb in a basement laboratory in Oslo.
Jakobsen, an Uzbek national who changed his name after moving to Norway, provided some of the chemicals for the bomb, but claims he did not know they were meant for explosives. Jakobsen contacted police and served as an informant, but still faced charges for his involvement before that.
An Associated Press investigation in 2010 showed that authorities learned early on about the alleged cell by intercepting emails from an al-Qaida operative in Pakistan and ? thanks to those early warnings ? were able to secretly replace a key bomb-making ingredient with a harmless liquid when Jakobsen ordered it at an Oslo pharmacy.
The judge said it had been proven that Davud had contacts with al-Qaida in Pakistan, and that his notebook contained references to Saleh al-Somali, al-Qaida's chief of external operations, who officials believe helped organize the New York, Manchester and Norway plots. He was killed in a CIA drone strike in Pakistan in 2009.
During the trial, prosecutors presented testimony obtained in the U.S. in April from three American al-Qaida recruits turned government witnesses.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Ex-Secret Service agent acquitted in bribery case (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? A former Secret Service agent who ran a body armor company was acquitted on Monday on charges that he tried to bribe a foreign official as part of a sting operation in which federal agents posed as arms-buying representatives of an African minister.
The acquittal is the latest blow to the Obama administration in a sprawling case aimed at rooting out purported corruption in the arms industry, a case the Justice Department unveiled in 2009 with great fanfare.
R. Patrick Caldwell served as chief executive officer of Protective Products of America Inc after working for the U.S. Secret Service for some 27 years, including being in charge of the division for the vice president's protection. The company was later sold in bankruptcy.
He and the owner of a business that sold ammunition and other law enforcement gear, John Godsey, were acquitted on Monday by a jury after a lengthy trial.
In the sting operation run by the Justice Department, 22 people were charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering for allegedly inflating prices to win contracts from a purported African defense minister.
The scheme was designed such that the minister would then allegedly take the extra money but he was an undercover U.S. agent. A few of those charged in the case pleaded guilty.
District Judge Richard Leon broke up the case into several trials because so many people were charged, the first of which ended in a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Prosecutors have said they plan to retry those people.
In the second trial, which included Caldwell and Godsey, the judge threw out the conspiracy charge, weakening the case. Three others who were tried with them are still waiting to hear their fate from the jury.
(Reporting By Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Richard Chang)
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PFT: Lions fear Best's career is over
Getty ImagesIt?s official.? In Saturday?s edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, ?reader representative? Ted Diadiun addressed at length the decision to remove long-time Browns writer Tony Grossi from the team?s beat.? Diadiun?s article is well-written, superficially persuasive, and apparently effective, given the number of emails we?ve received from folks who believe based on Diadiun?s article that the newspaper did the right thing.
But it doesn?t change our opinion that the Plain Dealer cowered to the Browns.? In fact, it strengthens it.
When scrutinizing an employment decision, inconsistencies in the reasons and rationalizations from the employer become extremely important.? The thinking is that, if the employer can?t tell a unified story in support of a supposedly legitimate decision, it?s possible that the employer is trying to conceal potentially illegitimate motives.? Circumstantial evidence also takes on a critical role, since the employer rarely will admit to ordering the Code Red.? Or, perhaps for these purposes, a Code Orange.
And that?s really the ultimate question.? Did the Browns order a Code Orange on Grossi?? Or, more accurately, did the Plain Dealer reassign Grossi because it believed the Browns wanted Grossi out?
Let?s consider the facts, the circumstances, and the inconsistencies.
First, the facts.? Grossi posted on his Twitter page a message that he had intended to keep private.? In the message, Grossi called Browns owner Randy Lerner a ?pathetic figure? and ?the most irrelevant billionaire in the world.?? (Of all the billionaires in the world, technically one of them must be the most irrelevant.)? Grossi immediately deleted the tweet once he realized his mistake.? By then, however, his words had been copied and repeated across the Internet, and it was impossible to unring the bell.
Grossi apologized publicly, the Plain Dealer apologized publicly, and Plain Dealer publisher Terrance C.Z. Egger sent a written apology to the Browns and to Lerner.
Though not addressed in Diadiun?s column, the Browns responded with silence.? Apart from declining to comment in response to inquiries from PFT, the Browns and Lerner refused to take calls from Grossi, and possibly from other officials of the Plain Dealer.? Indeed, Diadiun admits that ?[n]one of the editors involved talked with anyone connected with the team? before making the decision to reassign Grossi.
Diadiun omits reference to the key question of whether the Plain Dealer tried to have such discussions.
Second, the circumstances.? Most significantly, Diadiun admits that Egger personally met with Lerner and team president Mike Holmgren on Wednesday, after the decision was made to reassign Grossi.? The fact that a meeting occurred invites speculation that the Browns cared ? or at a minimum that the Plain Dealer believed the Browns cared ? about the manner in which this situation was handled.
Third, the inconsistencies.? On Thursday, Plain Dealer managing editor Thom Fladung told 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland that the ?determining factor? for the decision was the following standard:? ?Don?t do something that affects your value as a journalist or the value of your newspaper or affects the perception of your value and the perception of that newspaper?s value.?? Fladung also said that Grossi?s opinions would have been permissible if he had posted them not on his Twitter page, but in the pages of the Plain Dealer.? ?Let?s say Tony had written that Randy Lerner?s lack of involvement with the Browns and their resulting disappointing records over the years has made him irrelevant as an owner, that?s defensible,? Fladung said.? ?That?s absolutely defensible.?
But Diadiun?s item contains a contradictory quote from Plain Dealer editor Adam Simmons, who thinks that Grossi?s role as a beat writer precluded him from making the statements about Lerner in any context.? ?If it had been a columnist who wrote that, we might cringe, but that role is different,? Simmons said. ?They?re paid to offer up opinions, however prickly. But we?re not asking them to go out and cover a team in a fair and balanced and objective way, like we are with a reporter.?? (Presumably, Simmons also believes that a columnist could have offered those opinions on his Twitter page, since opinions are fair game for a columnist.)
Complicating matters is Diadiun?s attempt to reconcile the action against Grossi with his First Amendment rights.? Rather that relying on the simple ? and accurate ? notion that employees of a private, for-profit enterprise have no First Amendment rights, Diadiun draws a clumsy line between personal and professional social media.? ?Anyone who works at the paper has the right to say, write or Tweet anything they wish,? Diadiun writes.? ?But they do not have a corresponding right to say it in the newspaper or on the website or on their newspaper Twitter account.? If they do, the editors who are in charge of maintaining the credibility of the newspaper have the right to change their assignment.?
So Fladung says that Grossi could have said what he said in the paper, Simmons says that Grossi couldn?t have said what he said anywhere unless he was a columnist, and Diadiun says that Grossi could have said what he said on his own, personal Twitter page.? And no one says it?s impermissible for Grossi to secretly possess those views, even if those views (as Diadiun writes) undermine his credibility.? Under the newspaper?s view of journalistic ethics, it only becomes a problem when those views are disclosed ? which actually should make Grossi even more credible, since he has openly acknowledged his bias.
The end result is a stew of mixed messages, which invites speculation that the real reason for the move was to maintain a good relationship with the Browns.? Though there continues to be ? and likely never will be ? any evidence that the Browns told the Plain Dealer what the Browns wanted the Plain Dealer to do, some of the loudest and clearest messages can be sent through silence.
When Grossi or others from the Plain Dealer tried to call Lerner and/or Holmgren and they refused to speak, what should a reasonable person conclude?? Moreover, why would a meeting with Lerner and Holmgren even be needed if the Plain Dealer didn?t care about the team?s response to the situation?? If this decision was solely about journalistic standards and the integrity and credibility of Grossi?s coverage in the eyes of the audience given his personal views regarding Lerner, there was no reason to go to Berea and kiss rings and/or smooch butts.
That?s the fundamental disconnect.? The Plain Dealer wants us to believe it engaged in a textbook exercise in ethics while at the same time doing things like writing letters of apology to Lerner and publicly calling Grossi?s words about Lerner insulting and personally meeting with Lerner and Holmgren.
Though the Browns may not have intended to order a Code Orange, we believe that the Plain Dealer believed that it needed to remove Grossi from the beat in order to remain in the good graces of the Browns.? And we?d have far more (or, as the case may be, any) respect for this decision if the Plain Dealer would simply admit that which upon inspection of the facts, the circumstances, and the inconsistencies seems obvious.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Afghans blast French plan to withdraw troops early (AP)
KABUL, Afghanistan ? France's plans to withdraw its combat troops from Afghanistan a year early drew harsh words Saturday in the Afghan capital, with critics accusing French President Nicolas Sarkozy of putting domestic politics ahead of Afghans' safety.
A wider proposal by Sarkozy for NATO to hand over all security to Afghans by the end of next year also came under fire, with one Afghan lawmaker saying it would be "a big mistake" that would leave security forces unprepared to fight the Taliban insurgency and threaten a new descent into violence in the 10-year-old war.
Sarkozy's decision, which came a week after four French troops were shot dead by an Afghan army trainee suspected of being a Taliban infiltrator, raises new questions about the unity of the U.S.-led military coalition.
It also reopens the debate over whether setting a deadline for troop withdrawals will allow the Taliban to run out the clock and seize more territory once foreign forces are gone.
"Afghan forces are not self-sufficient yet. They still need more training, more equipment and they need to be stronger," said military analyst Abdul Hadi Khalid, Afghanistan's former interior minister.
Khalid said the decision by Sarkozy was clearly political. Sarkozy's conservative party faces a tough election this year, and the French public's already deep discontent with the Afghan war only intensified when unarmed French troops were gunned down by an Afghan trainee Jan. 20 at a joint base in the eastern province of Kapisa.
Sarkozy announced France's new timetable on Friday alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was in Paris for a previously planned visit. He also said Karzai had agreed with him to ask for all international forces to hand security over to the Afghan army and police in 2013, a plan he would present at a Feb. 2-3 meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
In what could be seen as a gentle rebuke to France, British Prime Minister David Cameron said in London on Saturday that withdrawals must depend on security conditions on the ground.
"The rate at which we can reduce our troops will depend on the transition to Afghan control in the different parts of Afghanistan and that should be the same for all of the members of NATO who are all contributing and helping to (build) a strong, stable and peaceful Afghanistan, which is in all our interests,'" he said after meeting with Karzai.
Afghan lawmaker Tahira Mujadedi said Afghan security forces will not be ready in time for any early NATO withdrawal, saying the current timetable already is rushing the training of national forces.
"That would be a big mistake by the Afghan government if they accept it," Mujadedi said of Sarkozy's plan. "In my view, they should extend 2014 by more years instead of cutting it short to 2013."
She said she sympathizes in the matter of the French soldiers' deaths, but argued that they present no logical reason for France to deviate from the U.S. timetable for NATO to hand over security by 2014.
"When military forces are present in a war zone, anything can happen," Mujadedi said. The French troops "are not here for a holiday."
France now has about 3,600 soldiers in the international force, which is mostly made up of American troops.
Afghan forces started taking the lead for security in certain areas of the country last year and the plan has been to add more areas, as Afghan police and soldiers were deemed ready to take over from foreign troops.
According to drawdown plans already announced by the U.S. and more than a dozen other nations, the foreign military footprint in Afghanistan will shrink by an estimated 40,000 troops at the close of this year. Washington is pulling out the most ? 33,000 by the end of the year. That's one-third of 101,000 U.S. troops that were in Afghanistan in June, the peak of the U.S. military presence in the war, Pentagon figures show.
Sarkozy also said France would hand over authority in the province of Kapisa, where the French troops were killed this month, by the end of March. Karzai's office confirmed that decision Saturday, saying it was made at the French president's request.
The NATO coalition has started to hand over security in several areas of Afghanistan, aiming to transfer about half of the country in the coming months. But Kapisa was not one of the provinces earmarked for handover, according to U.S. Navy Lt. James McCue, a coalition spokesman.
Mujadedi, a lawmaker who represents Kapisa, argued that Afghan forces in her province are not ready to go it alone in fighting the Taliban insurgency, which is especially strong in several of the province's districts. She warned that if NATO forces do pull back from Kapisa, it could also destabilize nearby Kabul.
"We have had so many attacks, ambushes and also suicide attacks in Kapisa," Mujadedi said. "Unfortunately, our national police and army, while present in Kapisa, are unable to provide good security for people."
France's early withdrawal announcement could step up pressure on other European governments like Britain, Italy and Germany, which also have important roles in Afghanistan.
Karzai, who praised the role of France and other NATO allies, didn't object at Friday's joint news conference when Sarkozy said the 2013 NATO withdrawal timetable was sought by both France and Afghanistan.
However, the Afghan leader appeared to suggest that it was a high-end target.
"We hope to finish the transition ... by the end of 2013 at the earliest ? or by the latest as has been agreed upon ? by the end of 2014," Karzai said.
Nick Witney, a senior policy fellow at the Paris-based European Council on Foreign Relations, said public support of the war in Europe started sliding fast after the coalition agreed to end the combat mission in 2014.
"It has become more and more difficult to justify every single casualty, since it's now clear that these are wasted lives," said Witney, a former head of the European Defense Agency.
"Most European policymakers realize that on a purely cost-benefit assessment, we would all leave Afghanistan tomorrow," Witney said.
___
Associated Press writers Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
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St. Louis to host first major parade for Iraq War vets (Reuters)
ST. LOUIS (Reuters) ? At least 1,000 Iraq War veterans and their family members are expected to march in St. Louis on Saturday in the nation's first major homecoming parade honoring U.S. soldiers who served in the war, a coalition of veteran groups, private citizens and local officials said.
Since the last troops left Iraq in December there have been scattered small events, including a speech by President Barack Obama at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, thanking veterans for their service, but no major parade of the style seen at the end of World War One and World War Two.
Organizers said the downtown St. Louis parade was being run by a non-profit veteran group and several residents disturbed by the lack of a major pomp-and-circumstance homecoming for troops. They raised nearly $30,000 by Friday for the event.
"We thought that if we can have a victory parade for the Cardinals World Series victory, we certainly should be able to have one for the vets of Iraq," said St. Louis attorney Tom Appelbaum, who helped get the plans underway a month ago.
"It seems silly that there was a national debate about it," he added.
Veterans from the Iraq or Afghanistan wars may march with their families in the parade, expected to feature 83 floats, the hometown Budweiser Clydesdales, high school marching bands and units from police and fire departments, organizers said.
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 quickly toppled Saddam Hussein, but the country descended into sectarian violence and an occupation that dragged on for nearly nine years before the last U.S. forces pulled out in December.
For Obama, the military pullout fulfilled an election promise to bring troops home from a conflict inherited from his predecessor that evolved into the most unpopular U.S. war since Vietnam.
About 4,500 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq, and the occupation was marred by the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the killing of civilians by troops or private security contractors.
Thousands of Iraqi troops also died in the war as did thousands of Iraqi security forces in the chaotic years following the invasion, along with more than 100,000 civilians.
Parade organizers plan to begin the weekend with a ceremony starting at 9:11 p.m. on Friday at the Soldiers' Memorial near the Gateway Arch. There, the names of more than 6,000 American service men and women who died in the wars since the September 11, 2001, attacks will be read by volunteers through the night.
Supporters of the Iraq invasion cited in part a threat that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, but none were recovered, leading to increasing criticism of the war, which some thought also sapped focus from the hunt for those responsible for the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
"The fact that we have had no support from the government shows how out of touch it is with how the majority of us vets feel," said former Specialist James Casey, 29, a parade organizer from St. Louis who was part of the 2003 invasion.
"This had to be done through the grass roots. We have had tremendous support here from all generations," he added.
The parade was organized through a Facebook page that has received 1,500 "likes" and the veteran's organization, the Mission Continues.
"We want to show that the skills of the post-9/11 vets can be transferred back into the civilian world," Casey said. "We are not broken and we can still lead from the front."
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay helped smooth the details for the parade.
"These vets did all of this for all of us and they have a lot to offer us at home," Slay said. "They know how to get things done."
(Editing by David Bailey and Cynthia Johnston)
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Mayor unveils Lebanon's new tagline & logo
Sporting a Penn State football jersey in keeping with the event's halftime-party theme, Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello stands before a screen showing the city s new logo and tagline Lebanon: The place to grow shortly after introducing them Wednesday night in HACC-Lebanon s multipurpose room. (John Latimer / Lebanon Daily News)
You won't find any reference to bologna in Lebanon's new catch phrase.
The city's new tagline - "Lebanon: The place to grow" - was announced Wednesday night by Mayor Sherry Capello.
The mayor's announcement was made in HACC-Lebanon's multipurpose room, which was decorated to reflect a Super Bowl halftime party theme. The room was filled with community leaders and invited guests, including many local elected officials.
In keeping with the sports-like atmosphere, the Lebanon High School cheerleaders lent their voices to the celebration, and many guests wore the jersey of their favorite team - including Capello, who sported a Penn State football jersey.
The tagline and logo - a red outline of the city's skyline above the word Lebanon - were the creations of a steering committee of about a dozen community volunteers who worked several months on the project, Capello explained.
The group formed its message by focusing on four of the city's best attributes - business, education, family life and community, the mayor said.
"Our tagline .... is not quite the big city flashy sort of tagline," Capello said. "However, it does reflect our vision statement and what you can get if you come to live in or visit Lebanon."
The tagline will not be part of a big marketing campaign, but it will be used to identify the city on places like its Website and letterhead, the mayor said.
The announcement of the tagline and logo were the finishing touches to a process that began a year ago when Capello invited community members to develop a vision for the city.
Four meetings were held at HACC during which the city's strengths and weaknesses were identified and discussed. A public survey was also conducted to gauge public sentiments.
The result was a lengthy vision statement, a portion of which identified Lebanon as a place with "a perfect blend of urban flair and rural character (with) a walkable urban center that embraces its historic charm and integrity while meeting the contemporary needs of a 21st Century economy."
While that process was guided by the Pennsylvania Downtown Center - a nonprofit organization with a track record of helping other cities develop revitalization strategies - Capello stressed that the tagline was a homegrown effort created and refined by Lebanon residents.
"We did what is right for us. What fits us," she said.
Capello gave credit to Jack Cantwell for coming up with the basic idea.
Owner of SkyLimit Marketing, Cantwell is a marketing specialist who has developed taglines and messaging for dozens of companies during a lengthy career.
After the celebration, Cantwell explained that good taglines need to have a positive message and be targeted towards the right audience - in the city's case, families and business owners.
"We built the line around grow, because it is a positive word and it is a reflection of the future, and positivity," Cantwell said. "We are a very solid, traditional community that sees the future as something special and positive. And we are happy to be here because this is the lifestyle we enjoy, and you can't find it anyplace else."
When campaigning for mayor in 2009, Capello promised to change the city's image and said creating a tagline was one way she would attempt to do it. Wednesday night, she said she was pleased with the results.
"If you want to elevate the standard of living of our residents and build our businesses, we must counter unproductive stereotypes about our city," Capello said. "We are going to change our image. We will promote the quality and benefits that are good to be associated with. Our tagline is credible, sustainable and matches the reality of our place."
johnlatimer@ldnews.com; 272-5611, ext. 149
Source: http://www.ldnews.com/ci_19822169?source=rss_viewed
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Video: Energy Stocks Lag
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Daring special forces raid shows Somali pirates are on the run
The SEAL Team Six?rescue of an American hostage shows US special forces are tightening the noose on increasingly desperate Somali pirate groups, military analysts say.
The SEAL Team Six raid on a pirate compound to rescue an American hostage early Wednesday morning is one signal that the US military is tightening the noose on marauding criminal gangs who kidnap civilians for ransom.
Skip to next paragraphThe abduction of Jessica Buchanan and her Danish colleague Poul Hagen, who were snatched from a car in November, is a sign, too, of the growing desperation of pirate groups increasingly feeling the pinch of stepped-up maritime operations, according to military analysts.
It is particularly notable, analysts point out, that the self-proclaimed pirates seized their hostages on land, rather than at sea.?
?I think they?re looking to expand their markets and looking for any vulnerable targets that they can use to do that,? says Rick ?Ozzie? Nelson, Director of the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
That?s because preemptive strikes by naval forces have helped to reduce by half the number of successful strikes by Somali pirates, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which monitors pirate attacks.
Indeed, while the number of attempted hijackings increased from 237 in 2011 to 219 in 2010, the number of hijackings that were actually successful among Somali pirates decreased from 49 in 2010 to 28 last year.
?The overall figures for Somali piracy could have been a lot higher if it were not for the continued efforts of international naval forces patrolling and responding to the threat,? according to an IMB report.
Just over 800 crew members were taken hostage in 2011. It was in 2010 that this figure reached a four-year high of 1,181.
Piracy has become an integral aspect of local economies along the Somali coast, whether it is those who become pirates, or those who build ships, or procure the weapons they use, Mr. Nelson says. ?Kidnapping for ransom is a very lucrative business for pirates looking for resources.??
At the same time, vessels are becoming more skilled at protecting themselves, whether it is by ?going faster? and pulling up ladders ? as former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates famously advised them to do ? or by hiring private armed guards.
But while the successful measures taken by vessels bodes well on the sea, it could offer some added measures of risk for US citizens abroad working in ungoverned regions such as Somalia.
?If you?re a US citizen abroad in a region like this, you?re taking great personal risk to take on missions such as de-mining,? says Nelson.?
Such risks to citizens abroad may increase if countries such as Yemen ?continue to unravel,? he adds. ?That?s one of the things we?re going to have to continue to address. Yemen could be facing the same model.??
The American, Jessica Buchaman, a relief worker for the Danish Demining Group, and the Dane, Poul Thisted, were unharmed during the rescue, according to?US military?officials, as were all members of the Navy SEALs.
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Progress M-14M, Russian Cargo Ship, Launched Toward Space Station
MOSCOW -- Russia's space agency says an unmanned cargo ship carrying 2.6 tons of supplies and equipment has lifted off for the International Space Station.
Roskosmos says the Progress M-14M blasted off early Thursday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan atop a Soyuz-U booster rocket.
The ship is scheduled to dock at the space station early Saturday with a cargo of oxygen, food, scientific equipment and gifts for the crew.
The space station's six members include three Russians, two Americans and a Dutchman.
The decade-old station is orbiting about 225 miles (360 kilometers) above Earth and consists of 13 modules.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Paterno's long goodbye ends with public memorial (Reuters)
STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) ? Some 10,000 ticket holders headed to a campus memorial service on Thursday for one final goodbye to late Penn State coach Joe Paterno, concluding five days of public mourning for the college football legend.
Big crowds have been turning out since Paterno died on Sunday of lung cancer at age 85, with supporters choosing to remember how he built a hugely successful and profitable college football program rather than his fall from grace for failing to alert police to a child sexual abuse scandal involving an assistant.
Interest in "A Memorial to Joe" at the school's basketball arena on Thursday afternoon was so intense that 10,000 free tickets were snapped up within seven minutes earlier this week. At least one ticket holder tried to profit by selling a ticket for $66,000 on EBay but the online site immediately banned the sale.
The week of mourning has drawn back to campus stars from past football teams, members of the 2011 squad, Penn State alumni who have no memory of any other football coach, undergraduates, and townspeople to remember the winningest coach in college football history.
They lined the streets by the thousands on Wednesday to watch the hearse carrying his casket weave through the town of State College and past Beaver Stadium on its way to his grave.
Mourners on Thursday will see four videos chronicling Paterno's career, six players representing his decades of coaching here, speeches by a Paterno scholarship winner, and a college dean.
The hero's sendoff contrasts with the sudden end of Paterno's career in November, when the university's board of trustees fired him following revelations about a child sex abuse investigation of his former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
Trustees, faced with a grand jury report that accused Sandusky of years of child sex abuse and accusations of perjury by two high-ranking university officials, concluded Paterno - who was not charged in the scandal - had not done enough to report a 2002 incident that authorities said involved Sandusky and a child.
Sandusky, 67, who maintains his innocence, faces 52 criminal counts accusing him of molesting 10 boys over 15 years, using his position as head of The Second Mile, a charity dedicated to helping troubled children, to find his victims. The court has placed him under house arrest.
Nearly 40,000 admirers of Paterno - a figure that nearly matches the entire population of State College - stood in line on two cold, raw days for a chance to pay respects at a campus spiritual center only a few blocks from his home.
Paterno won a major college record 409 games and two national championships in 46 years, creating a football powerhouse that generated $53 million in profit in 2010, according to Forbes magazine.
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Will Dunham)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/us_nm/us_usa_paterno
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iPhone, iPad app rewards being a couch potato (AP)
LOS ANGELES ? Want to earn stuff by watching TV? A free app for that is set to debut Wednesday.
When you tap the screen, Viggle's software for iPhones and iPads listens to what's on, recognizes what you're watching and gives you credit at roughly two points per minute. It even works for shows you've saved on a digital video recorder.
Rack up 7,500 points, and you'll be rewarded with a $5 gift card from retailers such as Burger King, Starbucks, Apple's iTunes, Best Buy and CVS, which you can redeem directly from your device.
With some back-of-the-napkin math, you can figure that it would take three weeks of watching TV every night for three hours to earn enough for a latte at Starbucks.
But the company plans to offer bonus points for checking into certain shows such as "American Idol" and 1,500 points for signing up. You can also get extra points for watching an ad on your device. The beta version awarded 100 points for watching a 15-second ad from Verizon Wireless.
"Viggle is the first loyalty program for TV," said Chris Stephenson, president of the company behind Viggle, Function (X) Inc. "We're basically allowing people to get rewards for doing something they're doing already and that they love to do."
The idea behind Viggle is that by giving people an added reason to watch TV, the size of the audience will increase, thereby allowing makers of shows to earn more money from advertisers. Advertisers such as Burger King, Pepsi and Gatorade have also agreed to pay to have point-hungry users watch their ads on a mobile device.
In exchange, users earn points, which Viggle converts into real value by buying gift cards at a slight discount from retailers.
If the company gets the point-count economy right, it can end up making more money from advertisers and networks than it gives away in rewards.
The app will also give the company valuable insight into who is watching what, as redeeming rewards requires putting in your age, gender, email address and ZIP code.
"It really shows what social TV is going to evolve into," said Michael Gartenberg, a technology analyst at research firm Gartner. "For folks behind the scenes, this is a great way of seeing who really is watching."
The company hopes that user activity will grow by word of mouth, especially by offering a 200-point bonus to people who successfully get their friends to try out the service.
The app makes its debut in Apple Inc.'s app store on Wednesday. Versions for Android devices and computers are in the works.
The company has put in some safeguards. You must watch a show at least 10 minutes to earn bonus points. And you can't watch the same ad over and over again to earn more points; there's a one-ad-view-per-person rule.
Function (X) is owned and led by entertainment entrepreneur Robert F.X. Sillerman, who once owned a big stake in "American Idol" owner CKx Inc. That gives the company deep and broad connections in the entertainment business.
Function (X) has brought in $100 million in investment capital, and its stock trades on the Pink Sheets, a platform that allows people to buy shares but doesn't require the company release its financial results. Function (X) currently has a market value of about $1 billion.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Gates defends focus on high-tech agriculture
In this photo taken Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, Bill Gates smiles while being interviewed in Kirkland, Wash. Gates has a terse response to criticism that the high-tech solutions he advocates for would hunger are too expensive or bad for the environment: Countries can embrace modern seed technology and genetic modification or their citizens will starve. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
In this photo taken Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, Bill Gates smiles while being interviewed in Kirkland, Wash. Gates has a terse response to criticism that the high-tech solutions he advocates for would hunger are too expensive or bad for the environment: Countries can embrace modern seed technology and genetic modification or their citizens will starve. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
In this photo taken Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, Bill Gates listens to a question while being interviewed in Kirkland, Wash. Gates has a terse response to criticism that the high-tech solutions he advocates for would hunger are too expensive or bad for the environment: Countries can embrace modern seed technology and genetic modification or their citizens will starve. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
In this photo taken Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, Bill Gates answers a question while being interviewed in Kirkland, Wash. Gates has a terse response to criticism that the high-tech solutions he advocates for would hunger are too expensive or bad for the environment: Countries can embrace modern seed technology and genetic modification or their citizens will starve. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
KIRKLAND, Wash. (AP) ? Bill Gates has a terse response to criticism that the high-tech solutions he advocates for world hunger are too expensive or bad for the environment: Countries can embrace modern seed technology and genetic modification or their citizens will starve.
When he was in high school in the 1960s, people worried there wouldn't be enough food to feed the world, Gates recalled in his fourth annual letter, which was published online Tuesday. But the "green revolution," which transformed agriculture with high-yield crop varieties and other innovations, warded off famine.
Gates is among those who believe another, similar revolution is needed now. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spent about $2 billion in the past five years to fight poverty and hunger in Africa and Asia, and much of that money has gone toward improving agricultural productivity.
Gates doesn't apologize for his endorsement of modern agriculture or sidestep criticism of genetic modification. He told The Associated Press that he finds it ironic that most people who oppose genetic engineering in plant breeding live in rich nations that he believes are responsible for global climate change that will lead to more starvation and malnutrition for the poor.
Resistance to new technology is "again hurting the people who had nothing to do with climate change happening," Gates said.
Groups resistant to genetic modification and other hallmarks of modern agriculture, such as pesticides and petroleum-based fertilizers, generally object on two grounds ? concerns about the environment and the high cost of the seed and chemicals used in modern farming.
Bill Freese, a science policy analyst for the Washington-based Center for Food Safety, said everyone wants to see things get better for hungry people, but genetically modified plants are more likely to make their developers rich than feed the poor. The seed is too expensive and has a high failure rate, he said. Better ways to increase yields would be increasing the fertility of soil by adding organic matter or combining plants growing in the same field to combat pests, he said.
The biggest problem with those alternatives, Freese said, is the same one that Gates cited in high-tech research: A lack of money for development.
In his 24-page letter, the Microsoft Corp. chairman lamented that more money isn't spent on agriculture research and noted that of the $3 billion spent each year on work on the seven most important crops, only 10 percent focuses on problems in poor countries.
"Given the central role that food plays in human welfare and national stability, it is shocking ? not to mention short-sighted and potentially dangerous ? how little money is spent on agricultural research," he wrote in his letter, calling for wealthier nations to step up.
The Gates Foundation is heavily engaged in political advocacy to get governments to spend more money on agriculture and improve policies on issues such as trade and land ownership. Along with advocacy and seed research, it spends its money on buying and distributing fertilizer, educating farmers and improving their access to world markets.
Gates said most of the seed research paid for by his foundation involves conventional plant breeding. In those cases, DNA research allows scientists to pinpoint which genes are responsible for desirable traits. He compares the work to changes in modern libraries.
"We used to have to use the card catalogue and browse through the books to find the information we needed," he wrote in his letter. "Now, in the same way we know ... the precise page that contains the piece of information we need, we can find out precisely which plant contains what gene conferring a specific characteristic. This will make plant breeding happen at a much faster clip."
But in some cases, researchers have inserted foreign genes, such as with cassava, a plant that when processed makes tapioca. It is a stable in Africa, but has been stricken by two diseases, causing more widespread hunger. Scientists injected genes from the disease-causing viruses into the plant's DNA to create a vaccine-like effect.
While Gates is a strong supporter of such work, he said scientists and government need to proceed with caution.
"I think the right way to think about GMOs is the same way we think about drugs," Gates said in an interview. "Whenever someone creates a new drug, you have to have very smart people looking at lots of trial-based data to make sure the benefits far outweigh any of the dangers.
"You can't be against all drugs, but drugs in general are not safe."
Gates' letter also addressed the foundation's work on combating AIDS and eradicating polio. He noted India recently celebrated its first polio-free anniversary and expressed optimism during an interview that other countries will soon have similar celebrations.
He said good progress is being made toward developing an AIDS vaccine and on AIDS treatment, and he hopes the U.S. will fulfill its pledge to provide $4 billion over three years to The Global Fund for AIDS research. It paid only $1 billion of that pledge in the first year.
Gates expressed in his letter and in person concern that the U.S. and other rich nations continue to support foreign aid during the recession.
"If you ask people should we provide AIDS drugs to people who need them, you get an overwhelming yes. When you ask people, do you believe in foreign aid, you get a very skeptical view," he said. "But the fact is that the biggest single program in foreign aid is providing those AIDS drugs. People need to connect those things."
___
Online:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: http://www.gatesfoundation.org
Center for Food Safety: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/
___
Associated Press writer Donna Blankinship can be reached at http://twitter.com/dgblankinship
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Transcripts show Italy captain says was told to approach shore (Reuters)
GIGLIO, Italy (Reuters) ? The captain of the Italian liner Costa Concordia said he was told by managers to take his ship close to shore on the night it ran aground and capsized, but the company denied having any prior knowledge of the maneuver.
The daily La Repubblica published transcripts of a conversation Captain Francesco Schettino had with a person identified only as Fabrizio in which he implicates an unnamed manager of the vessel's owners, Costa Cruises.
"Fabri ... anyone else in my place wouldn't have been so nice as to go there because they were breaking my balls, saying 'go there, go there'," Schettino says in the conversation taped while he was being held following his arrest over the incident.
"...the rock was there but it didn't show up in the instruments I had and I went there ... to satisfy the manager, 'go there, go there'."
The conversation, in a thick Neapolitan dialect which the transcription translates into standard Italian, was apparently taped without the knowledge of Schettino. It was posted on the website of the newspaper.
A source in the prosecutor's office said the transcript was genuine. Schettino's lawyer Bruno Leporatti did not dispute it but said his client should not be treated as a "scapegoat."
Investigators say Schettino steered the 114,500-tonne vessel to within 150 meters of the shore to perform a maneuver known as a "salute" in which a ship makes a special display by coming in very close to land.
"Taking a tourist ship close to shore is allowed under certain conditions and is a practice adopted by all the cruise ship companies around the world," Pier Luigi Foschi, chief executive of Costa Cruises, told the Senate on Wednesday.
"In this case the company wasn't aware of such a maneuver, and the program distributed to the cruise's passengers spoke of the ship passing Giglio island at a distance of miles."
Schettino is under house arrest and blamed for causing the accident by steering too close to shore. He is accused of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation of more than 4,200 passengers and crew was complete.
At least 16 people died when the cruise ship struck a rock which tore a hole in its side and caused it to capsize off the Tuscan island of Giglio on January 13. Another 16 people are still unaccounted for. Six bodies are still unidentified.
Whether or not "salute" maneuvers were encouraged by the ship's operators is one of the key questions in the investigation.
Costa Cruise's Foschi said it was common practice "and is not dangerous by definition, but of course one cannot proceed at 16 knots there in that location."
The practice is a matter of discretion that must be planned, recorded in the ship's log beforehand and performed safely, but it is allowed, a Coast Guard source said on Wednesday.
SEARCH RESUMED
Divers resumed their search on Wednesday after blasting four new holes to open up submerged interior space in the ship almost 12 days after the accident.
"It's obvious that for all the time that has passed, and given the conditions, finding someone alive today would be a miracle," said Franco Gabrielli, head of the civil service agency, who is in charge of the state's emergency operations.
Salvage teams are continuing preparations to pump more than 2,300 tons of diesel fuel from the hulk, an operation expected to start by Saturday and last about a month.
Giulia Bongiorno, one of Italy's best-known criminal lawyers, is to represent passengers who are planning to seek damages from the cruise company.
Bongiorno represented Raffaele Sollecito when he was acquitted last year on appeal, with U.S. student Amanda Knox, of murdering Briton Meredith Kercher.
In the transcript published by La Repubblica, Schettino also suggests that he abandoned ship soon after realizing that the vessel was listing dangerously.
During questioning by magistrates, Schettino said he fell into a lifeboat while investigating the state of the ship, which suffered an electrical blackout after it struck the rock. In the confusion, he had been unable to return to the ship.
Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise ship operator, has blamed the captain and suspended him. The company has begun disciplinary action against Schettino, a legal source told Reuters on Wednesday.
Neither the company nor individual executives, apart from Schettino and the ship's first officer, have been placed under investigation even though Schettino's lawyer has said that the probe will be extended to other parties.
(Additional reporting by Cristian Corvino and Ilaria Polleschi in Grosseto, Roberto Landucci in Rome, Emilio Parodi in Milan, and Laura Viggiano in Naples.; Writing By James Mackenzie and Steve Scherer; Editing by Giles Elgood and Robert Woodward)
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Deputy head of Libya's NTC quits after protests (Reuters)
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) ? The deputy head of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Sunday he was resigning after a series of protests against the new government which the country's leader warned could drag Libya into a "bottomless pit."
Late on Saturday, a crowd demanding the government's resignation smashed windows and forced their way into the NTC's local headquarters in Benghazi, in the most serious show of anger at the new authorities since Muammar Gaddafi was ousted.
The NTC has the support of the Western powers who helped force out Gaddafi in a nine-month conflict, but it is unelected, has been slow to restore basic public services, and some Libyans say too many of its members are tarnished by ties to Gaddafi.
Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice-president of the NTC and one of the council's highest-profile members, was the target of some of the protesters' criticism. He said he was quitting to try to limit the damage to the council.
"My resignation is for the benefit of the nation and is required at this stage," Ghoga told Al Jazeera television.
He said the national consensus that helped the country rise up and end Gaddafi's 42-year rule had not lasted into peace-time, giving way instead to what he called an atmosphere of "hatred."
"I do not want this atmosphere to continue and negatively affect the National Transitional Council and its performance," said Ghoga, who also acted as the NTC's spokesman.
Ghoga is one of the most senior of Libya's new rulers to have left office since Gaddafi's overthrow in August. His departure will revive doubts about the NTC's ability to form a cohesive and effective government.
He was jostled by an angry crowd of students when he visited a university in Benghazi on Thursday. He had to be pulled away to safety.
"BOTTOMLESS PIT"
NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil, speaking in Benghazi earlier on Sunday, appealed to the protesters to be more patient.
"We are going through a political movement that can take the country to a bottomless pit," he said. "There is something behind these protests that is not for the good of the country."
"The people have not given the government enough time and the government does not have enough money. Maybe there are delays, but the government has only been working for two months. Give them a chance, at least two months."
In a glimpse of the lack of coordination which Western diplomats say pervades the workings of the NTC, Abdel Jalil was asked if Ghoga would be stepping down and said he would not.
The protests in Benghazi, in eastern Libya, are particularly troubling for the NTC because the city was the birthplace of the revolt against Gaddafi's 42-year rule. It was the site of the NTC's headquarters during the revolt.
Abdel Jalil said he met with religious leaders and protesters to discuss their grievances.
He said he had accepted the resignation of the head of the Benghazi local council, Saleh El-Ghazal. Like most Libyan officials, the head of the council was appointed but Abdel Jalil said his successor would be chosen through an election.
(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Taha Zargoun in Tripoli and Mohammad Al Tommy in Benghazi; Writing by Christian Lowe)
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Supporting primary children's understanding of physics
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 24-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Press Office
Pressoffice@esrc.ac.uk
Economic & Social Research Council
New software has significant benefits for primary school children and their understanding of elementary physics, research shows. Studies funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) focused on what primary school children know when they begin studying physics, and how much they still have to learn. The studies looked at how much children understand about the movement of objects such as direction and speed.
The studies show that the tasks used in schools to assess how children understand the movement of objects seriously underestimate how much they know already. Professor Christine Howe from the University of Cambridge carried out the research along with Amy Devine, Pepi Savary and Joana Taylor Tavares. The research team developed teaching software to highlight any discrepancies between different types of understanding. The research also evaluated the effectiveness of this software in promoting performance on school tasks.
"This research suggests there's very little improvement with school tasks between the age of six and 11, and that children aren't being taught in the most effective way. The software we developed would certainly enhance the knowledge that the children already have, and help them perform better in school", states Professor Howe.
Their findings were based on the results of six studies where children were asked to predict outcomes using computer-simulated scenarios. These scenarios included a billiard ball being rolled and striking another ball to address horizontal motion. Other scenarios involved balls being dropped from hot air balloons to investigate 'how' objects fall.
The key findings include:
- A child's reasoning about horizontal motion and object fall is limited. It also changes little during the primary school years despite relevant teaching.
- Children using the teaching software made substantial progress in reasoning.
- Children find object fall especially challenging. The understanding of accelerating speed as objects fall through air was virtually non-existent.
- Children may benefit from using the teaching software with a classmate when their understanding is limited.
- Misconceptions about object motion are hard to dispel through existing teaching methods.
- Alternative resources are needed to overcome these misconceptions.
Professor Howe says: "The project has helped bridge the gap between research into 'thought' development and science education research. The software can be used by teachers and children anywhere in the world. The central message of the research is that this free software has significant benefits for primary school children and their understanding of object motion."
###
For further information contact
Notes for editors:
1. This release is based on the findings from Primary School Children's Tacit and Explicit Understanding of Object Motion funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and carried out by Professor Christine Howe at the University of Cambridge.
2. The software can be downloaded for free from www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/objectmotion/
3. Four studies using computer-simulated scenarios were conducted with 6 to 11 year old children. Two addressed horizontal motion via billiard scenarios where a cue ball rolled and struck another ball. The other two addressed object fall involving scenarios where balls were dropped from hot air balloons. Software packages were developed for two further studies also involving billiard and hot air balloon scenarios. Around 150 children aged between eight and 12 used the software in one-to-one sessions with adults, or in collaboration with a classmate.
4. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2011/12 is 203 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes. More at www.esrc.ac.uk
5. The ESRC confirms the quality of its funded research by evaluating research projects through a process of peers review. This research has been graded as very good
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 24-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Press Office
Pressoffice@esrc.ac.uk
Economic & Social Research Council
New software has significant benefits for primary school children and their understanding of elementary physics, research shows. Studies funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) focused on what primary school children know when they begin studying physics, and how much they still have to learn. The studies looked at how much children understand about the movement of objects such as direction and speed.
The studies show that the tasks used in schools to assess how children understand the movement of objects seriously underestimate how much they know already. Professor Christine Howe from the University of Cambridge carried out the research along with Amy Devine, Pepi Savary and Joana Taylor Tavares. The research team developed teaching software to highlight any discrepancies between different types of understanding. The research also evaluated the effectiveness of this software in promoting performance on school tasks.
"This research suggests there's very little improvement with school tasks between the age of six and 11, and that children aren't being taught in the most effective way. The software we developed would certainly enhance the knowledge that the children already have, and help them perform better in school", states Professor Howe.
Their findings were based on the results of six studies where children were asked to predict outcomes using computer-simulated scenarios. These scenarios included a billiard ball being rolled and striking another ball to address horizontal motion. Other scenarios involved balls being dropped from hot air balloons to investigate 'how' objects fall.
The key findings include:
- A child's reasoning about horizontal motion and object fall is limited. It also changes little during the primary school years despite relevant teaching.
- Children using the teaching software made substantial progress in reasoning.
- Children find object fall especially challenging. The understanding of accelerating speed as objects fall through air was virtually non-existent.
- Children may benefit from using the teaching software with a classmate when their understanding is limited.
- Misconceptions about object motion are hard to dispel through existing teaching methods.
- Alternative resources are needed to overcome these misconceptions.
Professor Howe says: "The project has helped bridge the gap between research into 'thought' development and science education research. The software can be used by teachers and children anywhere in the world. The central message of the research is that this free software has significant benefits for primary school children and their understanding of object motion."
###
For further information contact
Notes for editors:
1. This release is based on the findings from Primary School Children's Tacit and Explicit Understanding of Object Motion funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and carried out by Professor Christine Howe at the University of Cambridge.
2. The software can be downloaded for free from www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/objectmotion/
3. Four studies using computer-simulated scenarios were conducted with 6 to 11 year old children. Two addressed horizontal motion via billiard scenarios where a cue ball rolled and struck another ball. The other two addressed object fall involving scenarios where balls were dropped from hot air balloons. Software packages were developed for two further studies also involving billiard and hot air balloon scenarios. Around 150 children aged between eight and 12 used the software in one-to-one sessions with adults, or in collaboration with a classmate.
4. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2011/12 is 203 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes. More at www.esrc.ac.uk
5. The ESRC confirms the quality of its funded research by evaluating research projects through a process of peers review. This research has been graded as very good
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/esr-spc012412.php
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Oil up as EU embargoes Iran oil; natural gas soars
NEW YORK (AP) ? Oil prices climbed near $100 per barrel as Iran again threatened to block shipments of crude from the Persian Gulf. The latest threat follows a widely expected decision by the European Union to embargo imports of Iranian oil.
Benchmark crude rose by $1.25 to end the day at $99.58 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oils that are imported by U.S. refineries, rose by 72 cents to finish at $110.58 per barrel in London.
Monday also featured a sharp turnaround in natural gas prices. Futures rose more than 7 percent after one of America's biggest natural gas producers said it would cut production this year.
Tanker traffic out of the Persian Gulf has concerned oil traders for weeks, with Iran saying it could close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's crude is transported, in response to sanctions by the West.
On Monday, the EU said its refineries will stop buying Iranian crude after July. It also froze assets of Iran's central bank. The sanctions are meant to force Iran to talk with the West about its nuclear program. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, but Western nations suspect it is trying to build nuclear weapons.
The embargo itself isn't expected to affect world supplies, although markets would get reshuffled. Analysts say China, which is one of the biggest buyers of Iranian crude, probably will buy more Iranian oil at below-market prices when the embargo begins. China would reduce imports from other oil-producing countries, which would then sell more to Europe.
"Iran needs to sell its oil to someone," independent analyst and trader Stephen Schork said. "Outside the West, Iran really has only one buyer: China. That means China's probably going to get some sweetheart deals.
Experts say Iran doesn't have the firepower to close off the strait, which is the only way to get from the Persian Gulf to the open sea. But a conflict there could clog the waterway with military vessels and force the world's refineries to wait for crucial oil shipments.
In the U.S., natural gas prices jumped when Chesapeake Energy said it will cut production and exploration because of cheap prices and a massive buildup in supplies. Natural gas production has been surging in the U.S. thanks to new techniques that have helped the industry aggressively drill into underground shale deposits beneath a number of states.
Last week, the price of natural gas dropped to the lowest wintertime level since 2002. The Chesapeake announcement sent futures prices higher by 18.2 cents, or 7.8 percent, to $2.525 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In other energy trading, heating oil rose by 2.14 cents to end at $3.0098 per gallon while gasoline futures fell by about a penny to finish at $2.7779 per gallon.
Associated PressObama signals State of Union a campaign rallying call (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama, offering a glimpse of next week's State of the Union address, made clear on Saturday that he will deliver a starkly partisan election-year call for a "return to American values" of economic fairness.
"I'm going to lay out a blueprint for an American economy that's built to last," Obama said in a campaign video sent to supporters. "And most importantly, a return to American values of fairness for all, and responsibility from all."
A reference to values is usually political code for social and religious issues, a rallying cry for conservative Republicans who want to deny the Democratic president a second White House term in November.
But Obama, who delivers his annual State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night, is running for re-election on his claim of being a champion for the middle class, while trying to paint Republicans as the party for the rich.
"We can go in two directions. One is towards less opportunity and less fairness. Or we can fight for where I think we need to go: building an economy that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few," Obama said.
He is expected to use the speech to repeat calls for higher taxes on the wealthy, tax breaks to bring American manufacturing jobs home, steps to aid the housing market, and another nudge to China on currency flexibility to aid U.S. exports.
Republicans, who were holding a closely watched primary election in South Carolina on Saturday to help select their nominee to face Obama, say he is an old-fashioned tax-and-spend liberal whose policies hurt business and jobs.
Obama's suggestions are therefore unlikely to make much headway in Congress, where Republicans control the House of Representatives.
Attacking congressional Republicans on their own turf, during a prime-time televised joint session of Congress, signals a de-emphasis on appeals for cooperation that have marked Obama's previous State of the Union addresses.
Obama campaigned in 2008 on a message of reaching across the political aisle to change the way that Washington works, but now complains that Republicans have obstructed his efforts to collaborate and are only interested in seeing him fail.
Republicans say they oppose his policies because they view them as bad for the country, and say they are willing to work with the president on areas of genuine common ground.
FED UP
Polls show Americans are fed up with gridlock in Washington, but tend to blame congressional Republicans more than the president for the state of affairs.
Obama said he would focus on American manufacturing "with more good jobs and more products stamped with Made in America," American energy, and skills for American workers as key parts of his plans for the economy.
"They're big ideas, because we've got to meet this moment. And this speech is going to be about how we do it," he said.
He is expected to emphasize incentives to encourage lenders to refinance underwater mortgages, which would ease a crucial obstacle to a recovery in housing and the broader economy.
He has also said he will put forward tax breaks to reward companies that bring jobs home to the United States, while eliminating tax benefits that outsource jobs overseas, and has repeatedly stressed wealthy Americans should pay more in taxes.
Obama has proposed a so-called Buffett rule, named after the billionaire Warren Buffett, who supports the president and says it is unfair that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary because most of his income is taxed as capital gains.
Mitt Romney, a top Republican contender to face Obama and one of the richest politicians to vie for the nomination, this week disclosed he paid a tax rate of around 15 percent, because most of his income comes from investments.
Republicans say Obama is playing the politics of envy and what Americans really care about is jobs.
Voters do rate the economy as one of the most important factors in the upcoming election, and while U.S. growth has picked up, it remains fragile and unemployment, at 8.5 percent, is still high by historical standards.
Obama departs on Wednesday for a five-state, three-day tour to promote the framework he will highlight in the address, including visits to Las Vegas and Denver that were hit hard in the housing downturn, and to Detroit, home to the U.S. auto industry that Obama helped rescue through a taxpayer bailout.
(Reporting By Alister Bull; Editing by Vicki Allen)
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